Tag Archives: yoga

“A cup of coffee with a friend is happiness tasted and time well spent!”

That pretty much sums up the point of The Meeting Place on Market. We named it The Meeting Place because we want people to meet there – to have fun – talk – laugh and build community. We’ve had a lot of community going on over the last week.

I’ve been going to yoga class since it started in our meeting room February. Birdella from Natural Vibz originally started the yoga class on Monday nights at 5:30 pm. After she left for Florida in June, Paula Johnson took it over. It’s a great workout, and I’m really enjoying meeting new people. All About Yoga!

We had a commercial shoot a couple weeks ago, and it was so much fun. Exhausting, but fun. Below are some pictures of that crazy night. Who knew shooting a commercial was so much work! Mike & Andrew from Fox TV were very professional and efficient. They didn’t waste any time – moved from shot to shot to shot. A big THANK YOU to everyone who participated!

Doug Adams & Merilee Ziccardi from 12 String Relief wrote The Meeting Place Song – we are so excited about it! Stay tuned for upcoming commercials featuring the song.

Dan in his first ever role as a reporter/ anchorman. I think it fits him!

The business meeting shot

The group of friends shot

The motley crew shot, I mean, the cool guys shot

Trav & Lish Monford wrote this monologue about Open Mic Night, and it sounds great!

Our final commercial

Let us know if you see our commercial, when and on what show. We want to find out what is working and what isn’t. And hopefully we will be seeing herds of customers knocking down our door. Right???!!!??

Paula Johnson teaches yoga at The Meeting Place on Monday nights, at 5:30 pm. The class meets in the private meeting room, and is just $8/session, for 1 ½ hours! It’s a workout for beginners and the experienced alike. Paula helps everyone adjust the poses to his or her level, and provides an alternative if a pose is too hard or too easy for some. The class normally starts out with a long warm-up, then standing and strength poses, floor poses, and then warm-down and meditation.

Paula goes back a long ways in the fitness industry. She was a high school and college gymnast and a competitive diver and swimmer in the Chicago area. She has coached gymnastics and diving, and has taught fitness classes, from her college days until now. “But yoga has definitely got my heart!” she says. Paula has been practicing yoga for over 12 years, and her training is with Aura Wellness Center in Rhode Island! “I love to see what yoga does for my students,” Paula says. “My style of teaching is Hatha yoga; I also stress and practice the absolute importance of meditation in class. I encourage my students to read all they can about yoga and meditation benefits; I still find it fascinating how a practice like yoga dates back so long ago, and makes such incredible sense! People are amazing! ommmmmmm!”

Paula also teaches Yoga in the Park, and a Saturday class at Peak Fitness in Delphos.

Some of you might be apprehensive because of the linkage of yoga to eastern religion. However, our yoga is religion-free and is just a great time to increase your flexibility, strength, and well-being. There is usually a relaxation/ meditation time at the end that you can use however you see fit – whether time to clear your mind, think, for prayer, or just resting.

This is our first ever diary entry from The Meeting Place on Market. I thought it might be interesting to share what goes on in a gourmet coffee house in downtown Lima, Ohio.

The last couple of weeks have been busy and interesting. We threw a baby shower for one of the staff who is expecting a baby boy in the fall. She thought she was showing up on a Sunday night for a mandatory staff meeting, and was very shocked when she realized it was a baby shower just for her!

A week ago one of the Lima News editors wrote an insightful editorial about shopping local, using our coffee house as an example. We had no idea he was writing this, so it was a pleasant surprise. “[I’m] wondering if life wouldn’t be a little more colorful if we’d stayed loyal, stayed local and put our hearts and minds before our pocketbooks and lethargy,” said Kiarash Zarezadeh. My eyes have been opened over the last few years regarding where I spend my money – do I spend it at a big box store where the products are made in countries that don’t value human life, and sold at companies that spread their profits out to stockholders around the globe? Or do I spend my money at shops owned locally by my friends and neighbors who in turn, spend their money locally? It’s now worth it to me to spend just a little bit more, if necessary, to know that the employees and suppliers are treated fairly, products are primarily sourced locally, and profits stay in town. We use the same principles when making purchases for the coffee house. The editorial was encouraging to be because I feel the coffee house is always fighting an uphill battle against publically traded companies with national marketing campaigns, who pay less taxes because of tax abatements and other programs, and who may purchase from suppliers with questionable practices.

Side note: Biggby Coffee was upset that they were used as an example of a non-local business in the editorial. To be fair, Biggby is owned by a private company from Michigan, and the franchise owners are local, so more of their profits stay local. On the other hand, the local Starbucks (and many other chain restaurants) are corporate owned by publically traded companies – they primarily use out of town suppliers, and money spent there returns to the stockholders.

Our baker, Mary, recently created gluten-free croutons and bread crumbs that are available for sale.

We just switched over to a new web server, hosted by our rewards company, Rewards Rewards. We now get emails instantaneously and better service. That means we’re almost ready to release our new online ordering software that will allow our customers to order food and drink on the web.

Paula Johnson is now teaching our yoga class on Monday nights, and we recently added belly dancing on Tuesday nights by Andrea Waugh. Andrea was featured in the Lima News a week ago.

We’ve gained a couple customers because of the info on our painted windows. That gives me hope that the hours we spent over Memorial Day weekend painting them were not in vain!